Fox plans to succeed “American Idol” with new singing competition “The Four,” executives announced Tuesday at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. Also during the Beverly Hilton media event, reality boss Rob Wade provided a pretty great summary of the complicated Israeli format adaptation, which will not be ready for American airwaves until 2018.
“It’s basically like ‘Game of Thrones,’ with better singing and less nudity,” he quipped.
Wade also called the concept “brilliantly dramatic, exciting and spontaneous” — but hyping new alternative series is kind of his job. Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden added that she probably won’t put “The Four” up against ABC’s “Idol” reboot and NBC’s “The Voice.” Good call.
Fox’s new series will pit four semi-finalists — chosen at the beginning of the series by a panel of “music industry experts” — against the audience, who will submit audition videos vying to replace one of the four on stage. If any of the four are outperformed by a challenger they’ll be replaced the following week.
At the end of the competition, the four left standing will compete against one another and the winner will have the panelists join their team to “help shepherd the winner’s career and be fully invested in making him or her a breakout star,” per the net. None of the panelists or hosts have yet been announced.
Read more about “The Four” here.